municipalism

municipalism is an ideology, a sentiment or a cultural focus which is placed on the city, town, or municipality (and the interests of either).

Characteristics

This is most evidenced when a demographic group presses for either of the following:

• the sectioning of a portion of a municipality as a cloistered area
• the swelling of a whole municipal area's population and public cultural expression with members of the demographic group

in order to celebrate and embrace pertinent cultural aspects which could not enjoy similar entrenchment in other areas of the urban area which do not share a liking for such cultural aspects.

Unlike nationalism, which seeks for a regional or multiregional establishment of a certain group which considers itself a nationality, municipal groups rarely see themselves as regional or multiregional in settlement or dispersion terms, or even as groups which could withstand a rural settlement model without losing control or self-definition. Instead, municipal groupings are much more dependent upon those who do not share the municipal cultural ideals

Examples

This has been most evidenced with the creation and promotion of urban "quarters"; notably, LGBT and queer municipalism has long been evidenced in the formation of "gay villages", which serve as tourist hotspots and origins for parades and marches of various sorts.

Other examples include movements in Ireland to form "gaeltacht quarters" in major cities such as Belfast, Dublin and Cork in which the Irish language can be spoken exclusively and enjoy predominance over the much more common English language.

• green municipalism
• libertarian municipalism